December 14, 2017

I have seen Judge Kozinski dozens of times in the past two decades, moderated his panels, sat next to him at high-powered, high-status events and dinners. My husband will tell you he once fielded a call from the judge to my home, in which Kozinski described himself as my “paramour.” I have, on every single such occasion, been aware that part of his open flouting of empathy or care around gender was a show of juvenile, formulaic bad-assery designed to co-opt you into the bargain. We all ended up colluding to pretend that this was all funny or benign, and that, since everyone knew about it, it must be OK. It never was....

134 comments:

Oh God, I'm so tired of this. The more I hear or read this sort of whining the less I give a crap about the plight of professional women. Seriously. This is becoming very counterproductive.

Tell me about the single mother working multiple jobs who gets her ass pinched by her manager at the diner but she can't quit the job because her kids are relying on her. Don't tell me about the high-profile, well-educated lawyer whose husband had to endure hearing a federal judge joke about being her paramour. Anyone who has had a federal appellate clerkship has nary room to make such complaints.

Back in February of 2010 it became rumored that retired federal Judge Vaughn Walker – who presided over the case at the District level – was a practitioner of the homosexual lifestyle. It was further reported that he had a longtime male lover. Judge Walker refused to confirm or deny the rumors. At the time I was one of the few people to publicly call for his recusal. It’s inexplicable that attorneys defending Prop 8 didn’t make such a motion.

It's not too late for former clerks of Judge Kozinski to give him bad reviews, not too late for prospective clerks to vote with their feet & simply not apply for clerkships with him, & not too late for any employee who thinks they have a legitimate harassment or discrimination claim against him to make one.

It might be too late to spend a lot of time writing articles about stories you heard over the years, though.

The significant "remedy" for wrongs committed by a federal judge is impeachment.

Has anybody figured out what it may have been, that was done by Judge Kozinski, that merits impeachment? So far, what I gather is that Kozinski is "guilty" of talk that some of his female acquaintances/clerks/staff found to be creepy. What else?

I expect that Kozinski, like Trump, is not going to be impeached for decades-old complaints of creepy behavior.

This tells you a little about her views...Dahlia Lithwick: Justice Neil Gorsuch Proving to Be “Far to the Right” of Antonin Scaliahttps://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/27/dahlia_lithwick_justice_neil_gorsuch_proving

Amid the barrage, she says "I take no joy in this reporting. Kozinski is brilliant and wickedly talented. He has done important work on police and prosecutorial misconduct in particular, and if he is to be replaced, it will likely be with a 35-year-old Trump pick who diminishes women systemically, if not recreationally. Not a net win, if we are even trying to keep score for women anymore."

So Kozinski is a clod when it comes to women. That scarcely makes Lithwick a victim nor does it make Kozinski a bad jurist. A world where Kozinski is on the Supreme Court and Dahlia Lithwick cleans rest rooms to put food on the table is better than the world we currently live in.

That is an interesting phrase. Co-opt sounds vaguely sinister, but it simply means that everyone was party to the bargain. The question is, what were the actual terms of the bargain?

Kozinski offered access -- to himself and his contacts.

His clerks offered confidentiality.

One of the most intriguing revelations in Heidi Bonds' story is how shaken she was by Kozinski's failure to respect her vow of confidentiality. He was two-timing her religion.

But without confidentiality, there is no access. That is the Faustian bargain. The bonafides of Kozinski's access was his monstrousness. Kozinski offered a great deal on his side of the bargain -- the secrets that his paramours could use to destroy him.

For lefties, sexual history begins as recently as is convenient. For Roy Moore, forty years ago was convenient because "child molesting." For Weinstein #metoos the historical casting couch folkway never existed so history begins with the oldest complaint. For female snowflakes like Lithwick, history began when she woke up and noticed she was offended by tasteless sexual jocularity that allowed her to pretend she is sexually attractive.

I'm sure Inga is so proud of her party, because they are coddling Representative Kihuen, a Democrat from Nevada who just had another accuser step forward.

Republicans didn't elect Moore, but the left is very happily endorsing sexual predators in Kihuen, Franken (Still hasn't resigned! Democrats are eerily silent about making sure that happens) and Bob Menendez.

So far we have stories of Republicans (Inga's buddy Farenthold, Judge Kozlinski, Brown) who are quitting due to saying creepy things; while we have Democrats who are staying in power despite doing creepy things.

So why are only the Republican politicians quitting? What's worse, speech or actions?

“He completely ignored me and appeared to be undressing you with his eyes,” he wrote. “I had never seen anyone ogle another person like that and still have not seen anything like it. Was so uncomfortable to watch, and I wasn’t even the subject of the stare.”

I like the eyes and the "Psycho" intro music, all in black and white...

I saw the light on the night that I passed by her windowI saw the flickering shadows of love on her blindShe was my womanAs she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind

My, my, my, DelilahWhy, why, why, Delilah

I could see that girl was no good for meBut I was lost like a slave that no man could freeAt break of day when that man drove away, I was waitingI cross the street to her house and she opened the doorShe stood there laughingI felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more

So before they come to break down the doorForgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any more

She stood there laughingI felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more

So before they come to break down the doorForgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any moreForgive me Delilah I just couldn't take any more

This is another problem with delayed accusations. They established a kind of jesting rapport. She was part of doing that. Now, suddenly, after years of establishing the in-jokes and the references she finds it expedient to say it was all an imposition. Well, maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't, but there is no way for us to tell, and no way for us to tell if there was just misunderstanding abetted by her.

"For 20 years, I’ve felt it was too early to speak up about Judge Alex Kozinski." Why? If what he did was so egregious, why was she so weak and spineless? Of course, the statement itself nicely illustrates the driving force in the witch hunt: women's feelings.

"He Made Us All Victims and Accomplices" Victims of what, exactly? Accomplices, willing and spineless?

"My husband will tell you he once fielded a call from the judge to my home, in which Kozinski described himself as my “paramour.”" OMFG, lady.

"aware that part of his open flouting of empathy or care around gender was a show of juvenile, formulaic bad-assery designed to co-opt you into the bargain." Flouting of empathy! No "care around gender"! Bad, bad, judge! Doesn't he know that "care around gender," i.e., exquisite sensitivity to women's feelings, is the first commandment of prog feminism?

@AA: "You don't want to be thought of as a cog in a complicity machine." Well, you don't. But they do, willingly, gleefully. They were cogs, you see, manipulated into complicity by mean men, unable to speak up. They were just women! Now hear them roar! Roar for justice and revenge! . . . happily fetishizing their cogness.

Why are lawyers so weak? Well maybe you would understand why if you had a professional career that brings you back again and again in front of the JUDICIAL POWER of a jealous asshole that can sabotage your client's cases with a crafty gotcha word actually aimed at the lawyer whom he wants to teach a lesson.

The lawyers have to take it. And have to take it. And have to take it. And after we retire, no one still facing that Judge wants to hear from us then.

Perhaps we should start requiring men to wear blinders, except that instead of wearing them on the sides of their eyes like the ones made for horses, male blinders will keep them from seeing anything below a woman's neck. That will keep these poor, delicate dears safe from any unwanted male gazes downward at boobs or bottoms.

'My husband will tell you he once fielded a call from the judge to my home, in which Kozinski described himself as my “paramour.”'

Another snippet of Kozinski's penchant for engaging in role play. This time a lothario. The previous example I gave was a controlling EST trainer (No, you must not leave your seat at the seminar if you have to go to the bathroom. You must learn how to hold it.)

Precious Snowflakes like Dahlia Lithwick seem less able to process the ambiguity of role play and take it much too literally.

Politically Incorrect Role Play: a Class A macroaggression punishable by relentless outing.

I don't get this at all. We all know plenty of people who behave inappropriately in social settings: they are overly flirtatious, or overly affectionate, or they drink too much, or they make extremist political comments, etc. The remedies for that sort of behavior are, first, to gossip derisively about it with friends and, second, if it really annoys you, to avoid the person. It hardly justifies a big magazine article attacking the individual.

And accusing someone of inappropriately sexualized behavior on The Dating Game is simply incoherent.

I wonder if the looking at women inappropriately reflects an autism spectrum disorder.

A NY Times reporter tweeted out today that Donald Trump Jr said "Fuck you, bitch"to a friend of hers, a preschool teacher. It supposedly happened when he was 3 years old. Clearly, this is grounds for impeachment. She was so scarred and wounded by what a 3 year old brat supposedly said to her that she still has not recovered.

geez, Ritmo says "Fuck you, bitch" to me at least 6 times a month. I remain strangely unfazed by it.

Larry Walker threw a rock at me when we were 6 and it hit me in the head and made me bleed. I cried and told Larrys mom and she gave him a swat on the butt and said "Why did you hit her with a rock?" Larry cried and said "Because I like her!"

"Trump’s favorability rating has dropped 32 points between June and December among respondents who said they trust Fox over any other news network. In June, the number was 90 percent, and in December, just 58 percent"

"Trump’s favorability rating has dropped 32 points between June and December among respondents who said they trust Fox over any other news network. In June, the number was 90 percent, and in December, just 58 percent"

A comment well off any respectable markFroze Salma Hayeks bloodSaid by Mr Big Producer nameShe had been left in the dark when the handlers remarkedWhat might be an Oscar aimYet they knew the man's brainBut they can't be blamedTheys only a pawn in his game

A SNL senator preaches to his good liberal fansYou got more than the Right don't complainYou're better than them, you have virtue within, he mansplainsAnd the conservatives name is used, it is plainFor the tit gropers gain as he rises to fameAnd the bourgeois remain on some old style marriage trainBut them proper virtue voters ain't to blameTheys only a pawn in the game.

The lesson? Don't hire women. Don't be friendly with women at work or outside of work--you might be making them feel uncomfortable as they hang around you for DECADES and one day they'll wake up and smear you in a shitty webzine can claim that you were a hurtful monster all along. Pence rule it up, baby, and always keep in the back of you mind that any woman has the power to end your career and destroy your reputation with any accusation, no matter how stale.

News out about Democrat Senator Tom Carper, from Delaware. He admits to slapping his wife back in 88 (not even thirty years ago, I would say) where he had previously denied it.

Under the left's "Abuse of women means you resign now" rule, or the Judge Moore rule... . why is this guy still a Senator? Surely ARM and Inga and the gang must demand his immediate resignation.

Just like they are demanding Franken actually resign and Bob Menendez quit..... Oh yeah, of course they aren't. It's all a massive hypocritical display. Democrats can beat women without consequences. His wife should be glad he didn't kill her--that's a strong possibility with Democrats and leftists. Amazing how dead women show up around luminaries like Ted Kennedy, Gary Condit, Joe what's his name that's married to Mika, etc etc etc.

Ken B said...This is another problem with delayed accusations. They established a kind of jesting rapport. She was part of doing that. Now, suddenly, after years of establishing the in-jokes and the references she finds it expedient to say it was all an imposition. Well, maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't, but there is no way for us to tell, and no way for us to tell if there was just misunderstanding abetted by her.

Yep. If I were a lawyer I'd make some analogy to the concept of adverse possession--the longstanding agreement to that kind of banter and/or relationship (without complaint) having given the other party a reasonable expectation that the relationship can be "used" in that way (treating one another informally instead of worrying about a proper formal bearing, etc)--but I'm not a lawyer, so I'll just say fuck Dahlia Lithwick.

I just want to say that considering all of the quirky and bitchy and pathological types of women we men have had to deal with during the course of our respective careers, I think Dahlia and that romance novelist could have learned how to put up with a guy who is clueless about dealing with women.

I've met Kozinski at a few law related functions and sat at his table. He is an iconoclastic, uninhibited,egocentric, non-PC guy. He is also brilliant and (last I knew) hard working. These complaints are self-refuting. Nobody actually says he did anything that harmed them in any meaningful way.

I've met Kozinski at a few law related functions and sat at his table. He is an iconoclastic, uninhibited,egocentric, non-PC guy. He is also brilliant and (last I knew) hard working. These complaints are self-refuting. Nobody actually says he did anything that harmed them in any meaningful way.

You guys might like this book: Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States, by James Scott. Although Scott seems to be a leftie and (horrors) an environmentalist he actually comes to very similar conclusions about the state as you guys. In his telling you are the last of the barbarians, a group he views very positively.

Blogger is putting some good comments in spam. If this is happening to you, don’t keep trying to repost, because it might make you look more like spam. I’m going in there and releasing the comments but I’m only doing that every few hours, so you may have a bit of a wait. Sorry.

Additionally, a clerk spokesman confirmed that “one or more” of Kozinski’s current clerks had resigned. Above the Law reported earlier Thursday that three Kozinski clerks had decided to leave in the wake of the scandal.

Dahlia Lithwick is the female Jeffrey Toobin: a Democratic activist masquerading as a legal journalist, and dumber than a sack of hammers. If you want a schadenboner, read her blueprint for an electoral college revolt against Trump that ran in the New York Times about a year ago.

"Nobody actually says he did anything that harmed them in any meaningful way."

Unknown, you must be an unknown male. It's good you're unknown, cuz otherwise we're send the thought police after you. Quit the male supremacist act, and get it through your head: women felt bad, therefore the judge harmed them in a meaningful way.

"Nobody actually says he did anything that harmed them in any meaningful way."

Horrible bosses can harm people in very meaningful ways. It can be harder to figure out if they've harmed people in quantifiable ways. The law goes only so far.

Then there's the paradox that dealing with an objectively difficult or abusive person does not necessarily damage you. You could end up thinking that what a person did to you was unfair or abusive and yet not carry the madness forward.

Nevertheless, if you look at the celebrity industry -- politics, sports, entertainment -- there is a pattern. 1) People are thrown together with vast differences in status. 2) The coin of advancement is access to the celebrity. 3) The entry-level position tends toward the young and inexperienced.

Lithwick sees now that playing the game of seduction and deflection is very different for her -- a celebrity in her own right -- than it is for the law-clerkship she avoided by chance.

Kozinski finally taught her something meaningful -- if not so quantifiable.

In the meantime, David French (who is no Trump fan) writes in NR that ISIS has largely been defeated. that is momentous. we won a war and we don't care. We're too busy focusing on whether mr. x made ms.z feel uncomfortable 20 years ago.

Henry, also, the world of celebrity attracts not only the young, but the young and beautiful, who are frequently more than willing to trade on their good looks to get ahead. As Mark Steyn noted tonight on Carlson's show, it's rather unlikely the feed store in his New Hampshire town has a casting couch, because there is a remarkable dearth of young lovelies who will do anything to sell fertilizer to farmers. So the idea that this sort of behavior is rampant across America and men everywhere need to face the Reckoning is absurd.

And we now have Comey's initial Hillary evaluation before it got massaged by pure political partisanship. There were TWO instances of the term "gross negligence" that got removed, and the words "reasonably likely" that Hillary's server was hacked by a foreign power was changed to "possible".

This is smoking gun obstruction of justice. If this doesn't qualify, what possibly could?

I'm curious to hear what mountain of bullshit our resident lefties will deploy in an attempt to claim that we don't already have enough information in the public sphere for several convictions of obstruction of justice, and that we really should lock her up now.

I think exiledonmainstreet is right. The Reckoning has targeted Hollywood, the MSM, PBS, NPR and (for the most part) Democrat politicians. These are all industries/groups who have gotten a pass on sexual assault & harassment for years because they had the right politics. Now they are finally being held to the same standard as the rest of America and it's been a bloodbath.

You would have been crucified if you behaved like Weinstein, Franken, Clinton, Spurlock, etc, in a typical industry, like oil, mining, automotive, heavy machinery, whatever - anytime in the last 20 years. I think "normal" people working in "normal" industries won't have to change their behavior in response to the Reckoning, because the type of behavior under scrutiny has been a firing offense in normal industries for decades.

Will their be some "enhanced" training in the mandatory HR workshops for the next couple of years? Sure. Wholesale change of culture & behavior? Hopefully not - because honestly, what's left?

Blogger is putting some good comments in spam. If this is happening to you, don’t keep trying to repost, because it might make you look more like spam. I’m going in there and releasing the comments but I’m only doing that every few hours, so you may have a bit of a wait. Sorry.

Can't Zeus do it?As one of the commenters getting junked repeatedly, it feels like a targeted attack. Like someone hacked your account and choose certain names. Or someone at Blogger. Can names be designated as Spam? Nobody is going to go back and re-read a long thread. The damage is done.

Complicity. Go along to get along. The "good" American. History is replete with examples. In the Soviet Union, it meant the difference between life and a private lynching. In America, it means the difference between life and a public lynching.

I can't remember who offended me last month, much less 20 years ago. I couldn't pick my bad dates from 40 years ago out of a line up and I probably couldn't come up with their names. These ladies need something else to think about.

"As one of the commenters getting junked repeatedly, it feels like a targeted attack."

You are, in fact, one of 2 commenters this is happening to.

I doubt if someone hacked my use of Blogger to get at you and this other person.

Is there anything odd you did in comments in the last week? I know you've tried to deal with the problem by reposting and reposting, so that might be part of the problem. Hopefully, my releasing the comments will help the machine learn you're not spam.

It may be the downside of some recent improvements Blogger has made. It does need to keep working to exclude real spam. If it didn't do that and have a strong automatic filtering, it would not be possible to have a comments section. Spam would just flow in continually.